1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to apparatus for administering pills to animals, and, more specifically, a plunger-style pill gun for injecting pills and medicine into the throats of cattle.
2. Related Art
Pill-dispensing guns, often called "bolus guns" or "bailing guns", have been designed for pushing a pill into the throat of cattle and other animals to administer medicine, such as antibiotics, antacids, or antiparasitic medicines. Some of these bolus guns are for delivering multi-doses and have a long, hollow barrel and an internal plunger or push-rod. One or more pills are inserted into the barrel with the plunger handle pulled back to open up the barrel interior space. The barrel is then inserted into the throat of the animal until the barrel front end opening is behind the back of the tongue or even deeper in the animal's throat. The plunger is then pushed forward to shoot or deposit the pills in the throat, so that the animal swallows the pills instead of coughing or spitting them out.
While the bolus gun is being used with large animals, great amounts of force are put on the gun. The long barrel is inserted deeply into the throat of the animal while the veterinarian or caretaker holds on to the animal's head or neck and operates the handle end. In addition, the bolus gun is often dropped to the ground or wedged between, for example, the animal and a fence or other animal pen structure. The bolus gun is often used in winter in sub-freezing or sub-zero temperatures, which makes many guns brittle and prone to cracking.
Bolus guns that are made of metal are known to be prone to denting, bending, and breaking. Making a sturdier metal bolus gun results in so much weight that the gun is undesirable.
A multi-dose gun made out of PVC piping, results in a light-weight, economical, and reusable gun. A PVC bolus gun has been made with a short, hollow, PVC pipe handle extending down from the barrel at about a 90.degree. angle to the longitudinal axis of the barrel. A problem with this gun is that the handle often cracks or breaks due to the stresses placed on it.
Therefore, what is still needed is a bolus gun that efficiently dispenses pills to animals, but that is light-weight, sturdy and durable. What is needed is a handle design that stands up to the repeated and extreme stresses of dispensing pills to cattle and other large animals.